


Recovery

by Retifer



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Canon Divergence, Disabled Character, F/F, F/M, Gay, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, Major Character Injury, Multi, POV Third Person, Permanent Injury, Present Tense, also it's kind of important, but i like it & didn't want to leave it out, but yeah i needed to find a place to put that, i don't know what else to put, i don't know when it splits from canon tbh, i won't say anything more than that cuz spoilers, it does somewhere, it's like the first scene i wrote, rated teen & up cuz swearing, the scene that got me stuck w/organizing this shit was uuuh, they were watching Wonder Woman
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-21 06:41:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11938473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Retifer/pseuds/Retifer
Summary: When Star, Janna, Marco & Jackie decide the best remedy for a sweltering day is going for a dip at the river, Janna suffers a life-changing injury.-A commission for tumblr user Wombatking





	1. Water

**Author's Note:**

> : )
> 
> i mean... i don't really know what to say here?
> 
> this is gonna be 3 parts (each part being at least 3k words) to make it easier to overall edit & actually post. i'm also jumping right into things, like i always seem to do, looking back on all my writing...
> 
> so uh, yeh. here it is. enjoy~~

It is _hot_. Cars are melting into the road. The _road_ is melting into the _ground_. The Earth is most likely spiraling into the sun at this very moment. Star wouldn’t be surprised if she looked outside and everything was on fire.

In short, everything is horrible.

“Let’s go to the river.” Jackie suggests, arms up on the back of the Diaz’s couch, two fans trained on her and her slightly damp tank top.

“ _Ugh_ , yes.”

 “Abso-freaking-lutely.”

“I’m gonna go change. Meet you guys there?” Marco stands up, fanning his armpits.

“Yeah,” Jackie rolls off the couch.

“Damn, Marco.” Janna slaps him in the butt as he walks past her. “I’m gonna get to see you in a speedo?”

“Janna!” He yelps, scandalized, and then adds in a small voice, “I wear swim shorts…”

“Janna, you rascal.” Star snickers in the background.

“Uh, Star and Jackie are _right_ there.”

“I can slap everyone’s ass if you guys are feeling left out.” She turns to Jackie who’s slipping on her flip-flops by the front door.

“No thanks, I’m good.” Jackie nods at the door. “You going to get your bathing suit?”

“Oh, yeah. Unless Marco thinks Star’d rather see-”

“Okay Janna! Bye!” Marco yells behind him as he sprints up the stairs.

“Star?”

“Huh?” Star looks up at Janna from her spot on the floor. “Oh, yeah, I’ll meet you guys there. Gotta change.”

She makes a garbled noise half way between a groan and a yell as she pries herself up off the floor.

“ _Eugh_.” She says as her skin sticks to the floor. She gives the puddle of sweat on the ground an appalled look.

“‘Kay. See you guys there.”

“Yeah, see you!” She jumps up and waves as the two girls leave the Diaz’s house. Once the door closes behind them she sighs at the stairs, and then drags herself up after Marco.

* * *

 “Woo!” Star calls out from the water as Janna pulls her t-shirt over her head, flinging the piece of clothing to the side and winking at the others in the water. She turns around in a circle, showing off her unexpectedly yellow bathing suit top.

Janna backs up a few steps on the boat dock before running and leaping into the water. Marco and Star yell when the splash hits them. Jackie continues floating in her inflatable chair, giving Janna a thumbs-up when she surfaces.

“Mmm.” Star hums as she floats on her back. “This was a great idea.”

Jackie fist bumps her as she floats past. “Damn straight.”

“And we get to do this for two months.”

“Yup.” Marco pops the P. “Just two months of relaxation.”

“Sweet mother of Mewnie.” Star flips over onto her stomach. “I could stay here all day.”

“Hey, Star, you still got that- thing?” Janna waves her hand around. “That banana thing?”

“The Banagic Wand? Yeah.”

“We forgot it in the freezer last week.” Marco says. “It’s probably still in there.”

“Cool. What does it make again? Ice cream? We should eat some after this.”

Jackie hums. “That’d be great.”

“It’s not even really ice cream it’s like…” Marco holds his hand up in the air, then gestures in confusion before continuing. “…this weird banana mush. It sounds gross but it’s actually kinda good.”

“Weird. I can’t believe you guys’ve never made some for me before.” Janna tisks and splashes Marco.

“Ah! _Janna_!”

“ _Shame_.” Janna swims away from Marco backwards, eyes narrowed at him as she sinks into the water until just her eyes and nose are visible.

“Hey! When she first got it, Star didn’t let _me_ have any either.”

“That,” Star raises a finger, “was because you didn’t believe in me, Marco Diaz.”

“ _Shame_.” The three of them bellow at the same time.

“What? Jackie, you too?”

“You didn’t believe in her, man.”

He throws his hand over his chest. “I feel so… _betrayed_.”

“Should’ve seen it coming, dude.” Janna swims farther out into the water towards the floating dock anchored over the deep. “Yo, dare me to do a crazy dive?”

“How crazy are we talkin’ here?” Jackie asks, bowing her head to look over the top of her dark sunglasses.

“I’ll do a flip.”

Marco raises an eyebrow at her. “Are you gonna do it anyways, though?”

“Yeah.” She says, climbing up the ladder.

She gets to the top and picks a piece of seaweed off of her ankle, then tosses it at them. It lands several feet away. Star turns to watch as Janna goes to the middle of the dock, finger guns, and then runs.

Janna jumps out away from the dock, somersaults in the air and dives headfirst into the water. She goes under and the others whoop.

Janna squeezes her eyes shut as she plunges into the river. Water rushes past her ears, roaring, and suddenly her head smacks into something solid and everything stops. A sharp _crack_ overshadows the sound of water. She risks the stinging of water in her eyes and stares down into the weeds coming from the darkness below, sees the log she dove into, and just floats.

Past the shock, pain in the entirety of her neck, and headache blossoming at the top of her head, Janna notes with unusual calmness that she can’t move.

She assumes she just got the wind knocked out of her. That’s happened plenty of times. She’s hit the water pretty hard before, and every time it _hurt_ but it’s no big deal.

She relaxes, closes her eyes. Panic flutters in her chest as nothing happens. Her neck continues to _hurt_ , the headache just gets worse and- and the reality sinks in. She can’t move. She’s going to drown, and yet all she can think is ‘Oh no’.

* * *

 What’s she doing?” Marco asks, anxiously staring at where Janna dove into the river.

Jackie quirks an eyebrow. “Is she messing with us…?”

They wade in the shallows for a moment, waiting.

She hasn’t come up yet. Star’s about to tell him it’s all good, but a feeling of dread settles in the pit of her stomach as she stares at the water. The seconds tick by. After too long, Jackie sucks in a sharp breath, swears under her breath, and starts swimming towards the floating dock.

Star sinks, letting her feet touch the sand and water go up over her mouth, then pushes off and starts towards the dock as well. Marco swims backwards slowly, keeping his eye on the spot Janna disappeared while making his way back towards the small beach they’d left their bags.

Star watches as Jackie goes under. She stops, takes a deep breath, and dives under too. She opens her eyes, wincing when the water stings, and looks down as Jackie hooks her arms under Janna’s armpits and starts kicking towards the surface. Star reaches for her wand, but curses internally when she realizes she left it with their stuff on the beach. Instead, she rushes down to help.

As soon as Janna’s head is above water she starts gasping in shallow breaths, head rolling to one side like she can’t hold it up. Her eyes flick to Star treading water in front of her. She shakily opens her mouth, then closes it lightly. After a moment, Star realizes that Janna is trying to mouth words.

“Call 911!” Jackie yells at Marco, now on the shore. He darts towards his bag and starts digging through it hurriedly.

“What’s wrong? What is it?” Star asks urgently. She moves closer and turns her head to try and make out what Janna is saying.

“…can’t… move…” She whispers. “M-my chest… can’t breathe.”

“She can’t breathe.” Star tells Jackie.

“Shit- come on, help me get her to the beach.”

They get Janna to shore, infuriatingly slowly. Once they get in the shallows, Jackie stands up, arms still under Janna’s and wrapped around her chest. Star grabs her legs and they get her out of the water. They lay her on the sand.

“Does your neck hurt?” Jackie asks with a carefully neutral expression on her face, but her tone betrays her panic.

“Y-yeah.” Janna pants and shuts her eyes, gritting her teeth.

“Get-get me our towels.” Jackie orders, and Marco snatches them up.

She grabs them out his hands, holding Janna’s head in place. She rolls the towels up and places them on either side of Janna’s neck before letting go and scooting back a step.

Star looks down at Janna as her breathing slows. A spike a fear runs through her at that.

“Wh-what happened?” Her voice comes out smaller than she meant it to.

“I-I think she broke her neck.” Jackie answers slowly. “A friend of my cousin broke his neck while skateboarding and- how much longer ‘til the ambulance gets here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Earth doctors can fix this, right?” Star looks at her two friends not lying motionless on the beach.

“Uuuh…” Jackie and Marco look at each other. “Maybe- I don’t know, it- it depends- I’m not a doctor, I just know some emergency first aid.”

Janna starts gasping again and her eyes flutter open. She stares up at the sky with wide eyes for a second before blinking once and relaxing into a pokerface. She looks around with her eyes; she doesn’t move her neck.

Janna doesn’t try to talk again. After looking at the three of them, she focuses back up at the sky and just stares blankly. She’s never been one for blank staring; this makes Star worry even more than she already is.

Sirens call out in the distance. They all breathe a sigh of relief as the ambulance pulls up on the dirt road towards the beach. Star stands up and throws her hands in the air. The other two copy Star; they jump to their feet too and start waving at the paramedics.

* * *

They weren’t allowed in the ambulance.

Having none of that, Star grabbed her wand, summoned Cloudy, and got herself, Jackie, and Marco to the hospital before the ambulance.

She’s been sitting in the waiting room for three hours.

“How long does this take?”

“It’s not like a broken arm or something.” Marco says as nicely as he can while being completely in shock about what happened. Sitting around with nothing to do but think forced them to face the situation at hand, but it’s still taking its time sinking in. “It’s… complicated.”

“You said that Earth’s doctors are more advanced than Mewnie’s; how can they not be able to fix this?”

“It’s- it’s the spine.” He explains. “Think of it like your brain is sending messages to the rest of your body, and someone just killed the messenger.”

Star presses her lips into a line and stares forward across the room, tapping her foot impatiently. She knows that things on Earth aren’t done with magic, so stuff doesn’t happen instantly, but… they were supposed to be more advanced in stuff like this. They were supposed to know what to do.

“They can’t just replace the messenger? Fix them?”

Marco looks at her out of the corner of his eye. He licks his lips nervously. “N-no. They can _try_ to fix the spine but… it’s not that simple.” He ends with a sigh and leans back in his chair.

Jackie stares blankly at her phone. Her leg has been bouncing rapidly for the past hour. Finally, after being silent for a long time, she shakes her head and clicks off her device.

“Let’s… not be so pessimistic.” She straightens up. “There’s options- like, there’s this great hospital in India that my cousin’s friend ended up going to.”

“How’d he end up?”

“He’s, uh, still there, but he’s… he’s getting there.” She gives them a weak smile. “Janna’ll be fine, guys.”

Star lets out a breath, blowing a strand of hair away from her face, and nods slowly even though Jackie doesn’t sound entirely convinced herself.

“Now, uh… we should come back tomorrow.” Jackie says, standing up. “We probably won’t be able to see her today. There’s no point waiting around.” At Star’s look, she adds, “She’ll be fine. Her parents are here; they’ll take care of everything.”

Star looks towards Mr. and Mrs. Ordonia on the other side of the room. They look even more in shock, more worried too. They came in about half an hour after they did, having just got off work. They didn’t talk to Star, Marco or Jackie, just the receptionist and a doctor. Then they went and sat down and began to wait.

Star lets out a breath to steady herself, then nods and stands up. Jackie gives her a small smile and gestures for Marco to come too.

“Come on.”

“Wait,” Star grabs Janna’s bag they’d stuffed under the waiting chairs with their own. “We should give this to, uh, them.” She nods towards Janna’s parents.

“Oh, yeah.” Marco shoulders his own backpack.

They walk around the room towards Janna’s parents, stopping a respectful distance away. Star puts the bag down at their feet like an offering.

“H-here’s Janna’s stuff.” She says in a subdued voice.

“Thank you.” Mrs. Ordonia looks down at the bag before pulling it closer. She looks back up at them, seeming to study their faces. Just as they start to become uncomfortable, Mrs. Ordonia says, “Th-thank you… for getting Janna to the hospital- especially as fast as you did.”

Star raises an eyebrow and tries not to sound too surprised or offended at the implication that she’d leave someone close to her behind. “We’re her friends; we wouldn’t just leave her.”

“Thank you, anyways.” Mr. Ordonia squeezes his wife’s hand in his own and gives them a nod.

“Yeah, sure… no problem.” Star hesitates, then says slowly, “Can you… Um, call us if anything happens.”

They give Janna’s parents strained smiles before reluctantly leaving the hospital.

* * *

 Star shakes her head. Marco stops short, then proceeds to place the plate of Taquitos on the coffee table in front of Star anyways. He sits down on the couch next to her and munches on one. He nudges her with his arm.

Star throws her head back and groans loudly.

“Yeah.” Marco agrees.

Jackie nods in agreement.

“What are we supposed to even do?”

Marco is quiet for a little bit before he grabs the remote, turns on the tv, and starts flipping through channels. “We’re… we just have to wait, I guess.”

“When we go see her, we just gotta be supportive.” Jackie says, sounding more sure than she looks. She’s staring at the floor just in front of the tv. “I bet everything’ll be fine. She’ll be back to… whatever weird schemes she does in no time.”

Marco stops on some old looking movie with weird graphics. Jackie smiles, and it looks bittersweet to Star.

She looks around the room. She can’t believe that this morning they were just… chilling here. If they hadn’t left they’d still be here, eating Taquitos together while watching this movie. Janna would probably know what this is. It looks like Marco and Jackie know exactly what it is.

It’s as if Star is viewing the world through a film, everything taking on a surreal look and feeling. Because there’s no way Janna is _that_ hurt. They didn’t just leave her at the hospital to sit on the couch, eat Taquitos, and watch movies as if she only got tired and went home.

There were supposed to be four of them here, at the _least_. They were supposed to come home and dig out her Banagic Wand from the freezer.

Star breathes deeply, as suddenly it becomes very hard to get air in.

“We shouldn’t be… doing this.” Star gestures limply to the living room. “We just left her there, and came home like nothing happened.”

The atmosphere in the room almost visibly darkens. Jackie closes her eyes and turns her head to the side. Star can’t see her face, but the way she tensed up, the way her breathing became calm in a way that seemed too forced…

“This is so messed up.” Jackie says under her breath.

Marco sighs heavily. “That’s an understatement.”

Jackie starts shaking. Star wants to reach out but Marco does first.

“Hey…”

“I brought it up- _why_ did I do that?” Jackie says, sounding uncharacteristically self-deprecating. “We could’ve gone literally anywhere else and now she’s in the hospital ‘cause I wanted to go _swimming_ -”

“If you didn’t suggest it, one of us would’ve.” Star puts more confidence in that sentence than she has. When Jackie turns to look at the two of them, Star looks her in the eye. “This is really cruddy, but let’s just…” She sighs and breaks eye contact. “You were right earlier. We should just wait until we can help. We’d just get in the way at the hospital.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing we can do.” Marco shrugs. “Plus, Janna’d be super annoyed if she knew we were sitting around, being super dumb and cliché, moping and blaming ourselves.”

“Sitting around moping and watching _Spy Kids_.” Jackie sniffles. She pinches the bridge of her nose. She takes a second. “Yeah. I mean, I wanna be positive but…”

“It’s serious… yeah.” Marco looks at the scene unfolding on the tv and his closed off, tired expression softens. “But it’s… not gonna help anyone, being super negative.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Let’s all take a breath.” Star curls a piece of her hair around her finger. “We’re getting all… worked up.” She gestures with her hand not tangling itself in her hair. “She’s still alive.”

“Yeah- yeah, you’re right.” Jackie closes her eyes, takes a deep breath in, holds it, then lets it out. She opens her eyes. “‘Kay.”

“Janna’s mom and dad will call us if anything happens.” Marco points out. “I’m not saying let’s forget she existed, let’s just… wait for her.”

Star pulls out a tissue from the box on the coffee table next to the Taquitos. She thinks about it, then grabs one of those too. She reaches over Marco sitting between her and Jackie and hands them out to her.

“Here.”

Jackie accepts them with an amused thanks and munches on the Taquito while dabbing her eyes dry.

They watch the movie, phones on standby.


	2. Support

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i meant to post this earlier but, ya know, life happened. i'm finishing moving houses & don't currently have a desk (i do but i don't have a chair so i can't use it), i needed to sort my room out, deal with my pets- & because im an imbecile, when i went to post this i wrote out the beginning note & then left it at that
> 
> in other words i forgot to post the fucking chapter. & then ao3 forcibly logged me out just now when i went to finally post it & i had to do everything over again. so yeh. *deep, pained sigh* here be it.

Janna stares up at the popcorn ceiling. For a blissful moment her mind is utterly, completely devoid of any thought. Just the inverted constellations of the hospital room ceiling, her blank mind, and the soft sunlight coming in through the window. She almost convinces herself that she’s actually waking up in her own bed at home.

But the mattress and the pillows feel different, and that’s not her ceiling. _Her_ ceiling has glow-in-the-dark star stickers.

The moment ends and she remembers everything. She makes a face, dread settling deep in her chest. She wishes she could fidget, the thought worsening her bitter mood when she instinctively tries to roll over away from the window. Her shoulder twitches, pain spikes in her neck, and then nothing else happens.

Janna closes her eyes and tries to fall back to sleep. She stares defiantly into the backs of her eyelids, but the lingering grogginess of sleep filters out.

She begrudgingly opens her eyes again after staring at flickering light and darkness for too long. She sighs, though it comes out sounding more like a short, rough breath. She hasn’t been able to talk much the past couple of weeks. It sucks ass. Janna wishes she could _tell_ someone it sucks ass.

She opens her mouth and tries to swear quietly to herself. The “fu-” comes easily, being simple to pronounce. The “-ck” comes out not really sounding right, too soft, more like a sigh than a hard sound.

She lets out a prolonged hissing sound.

If Janna listens she can hear the bustling of the hospital; people talking, machines making various noises, other random crap. What a way to spend her summer, cooped up in a small room, unable to do literally anything. It’s as if someone built a wall between her and everything else in the world.

Her mind drifts to the future- what is she gonna do with her life now?- and she pulls herself back, unwilling to think about it. The dread just seems to swell, taking up more space in her chest. It doesn’t help anything to think about the future.

Half the people who talked to her since she got here have been telling her everything’ll be fine, and everyone _else_ sugarcoats the hell out of every single thing they say. It’s worse than being upfront, worse than talking about the things that make her feel like someone’s gradually filling her chest up with hot syrup.

But she still can’t move after two consecutive surgeries and to her that says enough about the situation.

She internally jumps when someone knocks on the door lightly as they walk into the room. A nurse smiles at Janna as he comes into the room.

♥

Star chews on a mechanical pencil as she flips through her spellbook, the tv droning on in the background. She stops and presses her index finger into the page, sliding her finger down the paper and reading over the cursive handwriting. She ignores the warnings in the margins chiding her for even looking at this particular page.

She shakes her head, hissing in annoyance as she gets to the bottom of the page. This isn’t what she’s looking for. She continues flipping through the book.

Marco comes into the room with a peanut-butter sandwich. He eyes the spellbook, then the pencil Star is currently gnawing on with a vengeance.

“You want a piece?” He asks, holding out one half of the sandwich.

She stares at the pages rapidly turning as she drags her finger down the side of the book, her face carefully neutral. She presses her lips into a line before looking up at Marco with a smile.

“Yeah, thanks.” She accepts the half of his peanut-butter sandwich, spitting out the pencil.

She takes a bite out of the sandwich and hums at the taste of something that isn’t plastic. After savouring the peanut-butter for a moment, she starts flipping through the pages again.

Marco mutes the tv and channel surfs.

“Whatchya doin’?”

Star purses her lips. “Uh, tryna find a spell.”

The pages slow to a stop and she studies the page she landed on. It’s the _Releaseo Demonius Infestica_ spell. She wonders if it could work briefly, but then remembers the last time she used that spell to heal Marco.

She tisks and continues searching, but not before folding the corner of the page.

Marco gives her a shocked look that she just barely catches out of the corner of her eye. He saw her stop on that page then.

“You’re not…” He hesitates before going on. “…trying to do what I think you’re doing, are you?”

“Hm?” Star gives him an innocently cheerful look. “I’m just looking for a spell, Marco.”

“What spell?”

“I don’t know. Just looking for something.”

“…something that could ‘help’?” Marco uses airquotes around the word ‘help’ and gives her a look, part understanding, part scolding.

“Well, _duh_. What would be the point in using a spell that _doesn’t_ help?”

His eyebrows shoot up and he shakes his head. “That’s not what I meant. I _meant_ , are you looking for something that might be _forbidden_?”

Star’s shoulders hike up and she slowly turns towards him. “Marco-”

“Are you trying to find a healing spell again?” He waves his arm at her. “That’s not gonna help, Star. Remember what happened last time?”

“Yeah, of course, but-” She sighs and pulls on a strand of her hair, roughly wrapping it around her finger. “Look, Marco. Earth medicine isn’t good enough. If I can fix this with magic, then why not try?”

Marco examines her for a long minute, jaw clenching and unclenching. Then he relaxes, closing his eyes and sighing.

“Not everything can be solved with magic. Things just happen sometimes, and we need to deal with them- in a way that we know can _really_ help.” He stares across the room at the tv. “How do you know that some healing spell would work? It didn’t last time.”

Star shrugs and picks at the crust on the half eaten sandwich. “I could _help_.”

“Yeah…” He nods. “But would it really be _helping_?”

“What? Pff, of course it would!” She looks at him sharply and gestures with her sandwich. “You really want Janna to be in a wheelchair forever?”

“Do _you_ really want to use forbidden magic on her?” He counters. Before she can answer he goes on. “I mean, when I broke my arm, it was _just_ my arm. You found a spell to fix _that_ mess. But this is Janna’s _spine_. That’s a lot more serious to try and heal. It’s more of a risk.”

Star opens her mouth to reply but finds herself unable to say anything. She knows that he’s right. But she also can’t help but _do_ something- _anything_. She can’t sit around hoping for some miracle to happen.

Marco picks up the remote control and starts flipping channels again. “I mean, if it grounds you, look for a spell. But think about it before you do anything, ‘kay?” He watches the quickly changing images on the screen with rapt attention. “Think about what’s best for Janna. I don’t think that’s magic.”

Star stares down at the book, picking little pits into the bread and nibbling on the bits and crumbs. Janna _would_ want this, she’s almost completely sure. _Why wouldn’t_ she? If everything could be easily solved with magic-

Star makes a face. Magic _isn’t_ easy. It’s easier than surgery and months of physical therapy, though. Easier than being in a wheelchair the rest of her life. If she _can_ , why _not_? To Star at least, it’s worth a try.

She flips the page.

♥

Janna glares at the small tv in the corner of the room playing gameshow reruns. She hasn’t watched Wheel of Fortune since she was five and visiting her grandma. It’s just as ridiculously boring as she remembers. It’s even worse that she can’t change the damn channel. Even if she could there aren’t many options other than this.

_Ugh_ , she wishes she could just go home already. At least there she has On Demand.

Star walks in the room and for a split second her faith in God is restored. She stops half way across the room to stare at the tv.

“Can you change the channel?” Janna asks before Star can get too into it. “I can’t stand this.”

“Really?” She looks around the room for the remote. “I like it.”

“You like _every_ tv show.”

“We don’t have tv on Mewnie.”

Star grabs the remote off of the stand and thinks for a moment before changing it to Disney channel.

“Hell yeah, _Phineas & Ferb_.” Janna laughs, though to her it sounds more like wheezing. She tries to clear her throat. “So… how’s shit with you?”

“Fine, good… fine.” Star smiles weakly, adjusting her backpack straps before dropping it on the ground, ditching the bag altogether. Whatever she’s lugging around in there seems heavy. “And… how’re things with you?”

“Kinda sucky.” Janna stares at the tv. The volume is a little too low, but she’s seen this episode already. “I mean, who wants to watch _Wheel of Fortune_ all day? It’s torture, I tell you…”

She means to say it louder but it still feels like someone’s pressing down on her lungs. She has to try not to gasp in air after every too quiet sentence.

Star watches her from under her bangs. She looks bad too, Janna notices. She looks crappier than usual; hair messily tucked into a bun as if she wasn’t really paying attention when putting it up, jeans and a sweater- she suspects she stole from Marco’s closet- in place of one of her usual brightly coloured dresses she loves to wear. Janna wishes Star had just worn her style; that would have been refreshing to see.

“School’s starting.” She says, voice creaking. It’s been a while since she had an actual conversation with her friends. It’s mostly just been her parents, therapists, and doctors.

“Yeah.” Star looks down at her fiddling hands. After an awkward silence, Star pipes up. “A-are you going back?”

Janna bites the inside of her cheek and watches Perry the Platypus get caught in a trap. “I don’t know.”

Dr. Doofenshmirtz goes off on his usual spiel. He’s always been one of her favourite characters in this show, for a dozen or so reasons. She wishes she could watch it in peace, without the awkward small talk with _Star_ , of all people. It’s bad enough with all these _strangers_ coddling her; she doesn’t need this from her friends- dancing around the subject as if mentioning it directly could break her even further.

“I’m-” Janna starts, but stops as she has no idea what she’s even trying to say. She squeezes her eyes shut before making what she hopes is a carefree expression and going on. “I’m fine, I just need to do physical therapy and stuff. I’ll just do homeschooling or whatever this semester.”

“O-oh. Okay.” Star plays with a loose strand of hair. “That’s good. I can tell you all the juicy gossip after school ‘til then.”

“Heh, yeah, like what the heck Brittney’s getting away with at school.” She smiles when Star snorts. “I can’t believe she still acts like the cliché popular girl. Not even Justin acts like that, and he’s on the foobaw team.”

“Pfft.” Star shakes her head at Janna’s pronunciation of ‘football’ and leans into the wall, resting her head and watching the tv with half-interest. She looks like she’s about to say something but her shoulders fall as she watches the episode playing.

After watching the show for a minute or so, Star talks finally.

“This is that show with the music.”

“ _Phineas & Ferb_, yeah.”

Star hums.

“There’s like, two-hundred episodes or something. I actually watched the premiere way back when.” Janna says. “Damn, that was like… almost ten years ago. Heh, weird.” She definitely didn't think that in ten years time she'd be _here_. "Weird how things change."

She didn't think Star heard until she slowly turns to look at Janna. She can't really read Star's expression so she pretends not to notice, continuing to watch the tv. After what feels like an hour but was probably only a minute, Star blinks, seemingly having made her a decision, whatever that may be.

"I... I have to go, sorry." She picks up her bag from the floor. "I have this... project thing I'm working on. Homework. You know."

Janna quirks a brow and for a second she lets herself be disappointed.

"Oh, okay." She tries to make her tone light, smiling. "See ya later?"

"Yeah! Absolutely. See you later."

Star smiles at her for a moment before leaving the room. Janna watches her leave not sure what to do now. She idly watches tv while wondering what her friends are up to outside of this bubble she's found herself in.

♥

Star fiddles with her pencil and stares into space. The teacher's voice became background noise at some point. She can't pay attention right now. It physically hurts her brain to try. She makes a low groaning noise in her throat as she glances at the clock next to the door; there're literally only seconds left of class.

Janna has been doing physical therapy and last time she asked she was told there was some improvement. She doesn't know how much, but she's been dying for the next time she has time to go see her; research took a lot of time out of her day- but it would be worth it in the end.

Jackie punches her lightly in the arm as the bell rings and she almost doesn't hear it. She shoves her books into her backpack as fast as she can and runs out of the room, Marco and Jackie hot on her tail.

She gets out of the front doors and is about to book it when Marco grabs her arm, holding her back.

"Star." He warns, nodding at her backpack; she forgot to close it. She zips up her bag, hiding the spellbook and dozens of notes sticking out of the pages.

"What?"

Jackie continues staring at her bag, eyebrows raised. She presses her lips into a line and nods once in understanding.

"Ah."

" _What_?"

"Don't, Star." Marco says, giving her a look. "Think about it for a moment." She doesn’t know if it’s an unconscious movement, but he rubs circles into his right palm.

Star's expression falls. She stares at Marco with a dark look on her face. "I think I have something. I want to try it."

"Are you _really_ willing to bet Janna's life on that?" He blurts.

She opens her mouth but doesn't say anything. Of course she isn't willing to bet Janna's life, but she…

"Instead of going through your magic book every night, trying to find something you probably won't even be able to do let alone be _allowed_ to do," He says all in one breath, pausing to take in more air before going on. "You should be hanging out with Janna. She's depressed."

Star takes a step back, baffled. " _What_ are you talking about?"

Janna? _Depressed_?

She wants to scoff but the little part of her that _knows_ prevents her from doing so.

"She's paralyzed." Jackie says in a small voice. "Look, Star. I think you just need to be there for her right now. She might not show it, but she needs support more than whatever you're trying to do." She gives Star a lopsided, sympathetic smile. "It's hard for us, but _she's_ the one actually going through it."

Star pulls her arm out of Marco's grip. "I-I'm going."

She doesn't really remember leaving or going to the hospital. Suddenly she's just walking through the doors, taking the stairs two at a time, and heading towards Janna's room. She stops at the end of the hall, hesitating.

Of _course_ she wants to hang out with Janna but... she has the chance to- to _do_ something. She can't sit around. She can use magic- why _not_ use it? The only reason she hasn't been visiting as much as she wants is because she was trying to find the spell- and Janna never seemed to mind. She always seemed fine to Star.

Star leans against the wall and fights the urge to sink to the floor.

Was it that she really didn't notice? Janna would understand once she- she did what? Used magic on her without her consent?

Star sighs deeply.

If magic isn't the answer, than what _is_? Leaving things be can't be it. They said she needs to... support Janna. Is that all? That's all they want her to do? She could do so much more, though...

She grabs her hair in frustration. She's just talking herself in circles. She wonders if there's even a _right_ thing to do- probably not. Everything she can do is not enough.

Support. Janna needs support. That's a right thing she can do.

She pushes off the wall and makes her way down the hall. She needs to spend more time with Janna. Not only that- she _wants_ to spend more time with her.

She leans against the door frame, and then for some reason decides to tilt her head and looks in at Janna in what she hopes is a charming way. She blinks innocently a couple times.

Janna stares at her blankly for a minute. Her eyebrows slowly rise up.

Star tries to ignore the bags under Janna's eyes, instead focusing on what she says next.

"Are you trying to seduce me?"

“Perhaps.” Star shrugs and walks into the room.

"How's school?"

"You know, mostly boring." Star sits down on the edge of the bed. "I have Ms. Skullnick in math again, _ugh_."

"Eugh." Janna squeezes her eyes shut. "Happy I don't have to deal with _that_."

"I know! What is even the point in math? When am I going to need to know any of this?" Star complains, smoothing down her skirt on her thigh. "Like, yeah, okay, I get it- one plus one is two. Can't we do something _fun_?"

"I doubt the school can make a 'Warnicorn Taming' class." The corners of Janna's lips twitch upwards. "That would be awesome though."

"I _know_!" She throws her head back and groans at the ceiling. "I've had to tame Warnicorns in real life more times than solve math problems, lemme tell you."

"I'm sure you have."

Star looks at Janna through the corner of her eye. She can't tell if she's depressed or not. She _does_ look tired, though. Her eyes are darker.

“Hey, uh, Star?”

“Yeah?”

Janna stares past Star into nothing. "I'm gonna go to a, uh, rehab center." She swallows heavily and sucks in a deep breath. "In, uh, Colorado. My parents picked it out, thought it was the best fit or something." She doesn't look at Star to gauge her reaction, just keeps talking. "Heh, blaze it! When I get there I can smoke some weed- it's legal in Colorado. Though I probably won't be allowed; I'll be in a literal rehab center. I mean, it's for SCI patients but, like, you know what I mean."

Star internally tries to remember the map of the US, frowning slightly. Where was Colorado again? Was that a state or city? Oh no- Was Colorado a different _country_?

"What's Colorado again?" She asks.

Janna laughs quietly. "It's a state."

"Ah." Star nods, still no idea where that is in relation to Echo Creek. "And... this place..."

"They specialize in... this stuff." She nods again and tries to catch Jana's eye as she continues. "I've, uh... been in the hospital for too long, I think."

Star licks her lips nervously. She doesn't want to say anything, if she does she has a feeling she's going to say something stupid, something that wouldn't help at all.

She steels herself, folds her hands in her lap, and listens. Janna needs support, not useless advice and pity. She needs support.

Janna lets out a shakey breath and for some reason, as Star watches Janna quietly, she notices everything different about her. The way her hair is outgrown, the lack of colour in her face, tired eyes, chapped lips- Star feels her heart sink. She should've been here.

Janna prattles on about the center she's going to be transferred to, programs that are available to her, schooling, rehabilitation. Star doesn't understand a few of the things she mentions but she tries her best to appear invested, after all she _is_. She just wants Janna to know she's here for her now.

Maybe Marco and Jackie are right. Maybe magic isn't what Janna needs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i chose the sci rehab center in colorado cuz i wanted to make a weed joke.
> 
> also, in my msword document, i use symbols as scene cuts. for DP its the letter theta which cant be pasted into ao3, for vld its an upside down triangle, & for starvs its a little heart which i found out /can/ be pasted into ao3, so im using that instead of the line. when i edit chap 1 (which i will cuz its bothering me for some reason) i will change the cut to a heart there too.
> 
> i was originally gonna call this one Feel (after Do You Feel It? by Chaos Chaos) but then i was like, no that's next chapter. so i looked for a new song to name it after & had this one song stuck in my head? & i was like oooh that song. what's that song called. & when i found it it was fucking named Recover so im just gonna stick with the main theme of this chap, Support. the only chapter not named after a song

**Author's Note:**

> I'm splitting this into 3 parts so I can get it out faster, cuz there's some scenes I wrote but don't know where to put?? what do i do with these scenes??? i like em but what the heck. so here is Part 1 of Recovery. the next two parts/chapters will have longer scenes.
> 
> This is a commission that I got over a month ago & my goodness. I did a lot of quick research for this, which is probs one of the many reasons I'm late af (tho this IS 10k & I've had a bunch of family shit this month? & then when I finally got out of one of them- my sister's housewarming party- my cat got out & ran away & I had to go find him. it was the craziest adventure & I don't quite believe it actually happened cuz of all the weird shit that happened to me??? i thought a fashionable cowboy was gonna kill me & played IRL Hello Neighbor: Cat Edition & these dog walkers almost got in a physical fight right in front of me- point is I was busy & had 2 commissions to do + organize myself & my writing/posting schedule).
> 
> Anyways, I have a lot of resources for research n stuff & researching is fun, so honestly? i had fun doing the research part. Also I made a playlist for this fic. If anyone wants me to, I can put it on 8tracks or something. It's only like, 11 songs? 12? they're songs I listened to while writing this.
> 
> Anywaaays. yeh. I'm doing some heavy organizing of my life rn, so this is... later than I wanted to start posting it. but better late than never, man.
> 
> lmao tho i got distracted for ten minutes while editing this just now cuz i saw the word dab & ima go to sleep k. i'll be posting like, 4 things later this week (including 1 other commission, two more chaps of Recovery, & 1 chap of Phantom)


End file.
